You Can Start Hearts with Paperclips They're No Good for Broken Ones
by Objessions
Summary: Tag to Episode 2 Muscle Car and Paper Clips I just feel the need for some fix-it work with this one. And Cage still irks me. J
1. Chapter 1

As Mac was slammed into the shipping container for about the fifth time, he had the fleeting thought that he wanted one – just one, mind you- boring day where everything went according to plan. This mission had been a string of several days where absolutely nothing had, from the moment he'd gotten up at home to discover he's forgotten to set the timer on his coffee maker, to his bike developing a spark knock on the way in to work, to his key card somehow having gotten demagnetized and having to wait for Jack, to Matty being so snarky with the team it felt like the bad old days when she'd started with them months ago. Now this.

The concept of an electromagnetic pulse device wasn't exactly new, but the one this small but well-funded group was trying to sell to the North Koreans was extremely compact and efficient. Purportedly better tech than even DARPA had yet to lay eyes on. And Matty wanted it.

To be fair, she also wanted it to not make it to its destination, but she had been pretty clear that making it home with the device would equal happy Matty, coming home without it, even if that served the greater good, would resort in some sort of creative punishment.

The last time they had "disappointed her", it had been two weeks of recruit evaluations. Not the fun, take them into the field and see what they've got kind; the sit in Mac's office and read their files and sort through them based on a highly subjective checklist developed by Matty kind. Mac had been ready to quit and go work at the special effects company Bozer was still scheming about starting and Jack had asked, only half joking, if they'd considered adding a stunt division.

Jack was getting tired. Mac could tell. He complained at the team when he was tired. It was stressing Riley out at least as much as trying to complete the mission, which had been bad enough when they'd been on the ground, but now with the added fun of being at cruising altitude with the cargo door still open, now had the added element of no one wanting to fall forty thousand feet or so to their deaths.

Mac very helpfully didn't point out that they'd probably freeze or suffocate before they hit the ground. He didn't think anyone else would appreciate the information, although it did make him feel oddly better about it. Fed up with getting chewed out over the comms, slammed into the fuselage by the bad guys, and listening to Riley and Jack bicker like they always did, Mac quickly decided on a solution to get rid of the bad guys. If the EMP device got yanked out, so be it, he thought grumpily as he was slammed against the cargo crate again.

A few quick efficient maneuvers later and the bad guys were pulled out of the plane by the force of the cargo crate and its parachute. Unfortunately, one of the guys was apparently as quick a thinker as Mac. And he not only avoided going off the plane, but picked up the EMP device, just as quick as a hiccough, and was looking around, assessing his options.

If Jack's gun hadn't been knocked away in the fight, they'd have had no problem; wouldn't have even needed to worry about depressurization because the door was already open. But Jack had lost his main piece early in the struggle and his back-up a couple of minutes ago. Mac knew because Jack swore as the guy he was fighting with kicked it and he saw it go skittering out the door.

When Riley saw Jack's gun on the ground, instinct and training had it in her hands before thought had even caught up to what she was doing. Once her mind caught up though, once she processed the weight of the weapon in her hands, the flashbacks she'd been having for weeks burned behind her eyes. Mac knew the look, intimately. So did Jack. Both encouraged her with level voices to finish the job. Jack could see there was no way she was going to be able to follow through. He'd been afraid of this, had said so more than once. Mac had practically made him swear on his father's grave that he wouldn't say so out loud to Riley and shake her confidence. Mac had hoped all that time resting and looking out for Bozer would have been as healing for her mentally as it had been for Boze physically.

As Mac watched the last parachute leave the plane with the guy who was probably going to be very rich by sunrise tomorrow, and felt the aircraft pitch with the loss of power, his first thought, before his brain started trying to figure out how to get them out of this was that if they made it out of this alive, was that Jack had probably been right. If they made it out alive, the next job would be getting her past it. He vaguely hoped another mission would come their way before too long. It's what had gotten Mac past it the first time he'd choked in the field.

They all felt the plane slip just a little more. The EMP had also knocked out their comms, their phones, and any other means of possibly getting help. So Mac was more than a little surprised when he glanced at Jack and saw his partner starting to grin one of his crazy I'm about to do something stupid and I think it might be kinda fun grins. "What're you thinking Jack?" Mac asked, an almost warning tone in his voice.

Jack waved them toward the cockpit. "I have always, my whole life wanted to try a deadstick landing!"

"You think we've got a good location?" Mac asked, half-hopefully.

Jack grinned again. "All kinds of farmland 'round here. Some water. I think I can bring her in, more or less in one piece."

"Great," Mac groaned. He just had to add the more or less.

Riley began to ask, her voice still shaking, "What's a dead stick ...?"

Mac shook his head. "You really don't want to know. You ride co-pilot and do what he tells you. I'm gonna see if I can get the landing gear down manually."


	2. Chapter 2

"Jack, don't," Mac texted.

"She needs this, man."

"No, she needs to know it was a fluke. Tell her to talk to the shrink, buy her a beer, and let's go spar or something until you feel like you, Jack. Bring Ri. She likes to punch stuff." Mac's fingers flew over his keyboard and Bozer threw him a look.

"What's up, bro?' Boze asked with concern.

Mac sighed. "Riley had a rough time on the mission and …"

"You mean she froze and couldn't take out the bad guy and he got away with the package and she almost got you guys killed and that's totally what would have happened if Jack wasn't such a badass crazy stick jockey raised by another badass crazy stick jockey who learned how not to die in Vietnam and passed it on to his mostly psycho but altogether loveable kid? And you and Jack are tryin' to take the blame so Matty doesn't chew her a new one?"

Mac's eyes went wide and he swallowed, glancing at Boze over the table in the lab where he was helping his friend put right all the stuff he and Jack had done to Sparky (clandestinely named Jarvis by him and Jack) while they were traveling. "Wow. Um. I mean … Not exactly?"

"Yes, exactly Angus MacGyver. I've known you for too long for you to try to pull a fast one on me. Maybe try that on Cage. Seems like the kind of lie that might win you the bet."

Mac smiled. "I'm not playing games with the new guy. Matty likes her, trusts her from their time at CIA. I'm still not convinced Matty is behind our team. I'm not screwing with the ringer."

"You think Cage is a ringer?" Bozer asked, adjusting something inside Sparky's chest and glancing at Mac tentatively. He'd thought the same thing, but hadn't dared say so. She kept saying things that she couldn't just know, couldn't just pick up on. Somebody was feeding her intel. If Bozer had to guess, his guess would be Matty. But he wasn't going to say that to Mac. Poor guy had enough trust issues after Thornton, and then Nikki fading in and out … forget the stuff that had happened to him as a kid. He just prodded, "Really?"

Mac sighed, pulling an office chair close, and sinking into it. "I don't know what to think, Boze. But nothing fits the way it should right now. Nothing is going quite right and …"

Bozer pulled up another wheeled chair. "And you're worried about your dad?"

Mac frowned. "I don't know how I feel about him."

Mac paused for a moment; looking at his watch which was basically all he had of his father. He didn't even really have many pictures. His dad had always carefully been the photographer. Mac had hundreds of pictures of him and his mother, even of his grandmother and grandfather, shit, of him and Bozer, and even Penny, but only a precious few of his father. And not really any of them together.

Then Bozer being Bozer said the worst possible thing in his happy home life based innocence. "Mac, I know you love your dad. You must be worried."

Bozer was too old and good a friend for Mac to say what bubbled up in his chest then. He got up and started to pace around, trying to come up with something to say that didn't involve him taking off the head of the guy who was basically his first brother, the guy he'd shared a room with when Child Services decided his grandfather couldn't cut it, the guy who took him to the airport in tears with the elder Bozers when he shipped out for Basic and AIT and again when he got deployed soon after. Then Matty, the person he was most irritated with and suspicious of actually saved the day by sending a text. He rolled his eyes when he saw it, but there was no mistaking its meaning since his was the primary number and everyone else was a cc, "Oi, Potter, get the rest of the Gryffindors to the common room in the hour, or you all flunk potions."

"C'mon, Boze," he chuckled, showing his friend the phone.

"What does that even mean?" Bozer asked.

"That Matty has a fundamental misunderstanding of the Harry Potter universe, but that we better move our asses."

When they were in Mac's jeep Bozer asked Mac to explain. Mac half smiled. "Riley is clearly a Ravenclaw. All brains and analytics."

Bozer nodded. That made sense. "Aren't you a Ravenclaw too, Genius?"

Mac waved him off. "Probably not." He sighed. "Cage is a Ravenclaw, all that picking people apart crap. That's so cerebral, I can't even justify it." Mac's head dipped toward his chest for a moment.

"What about me?" Bozer asked, clearly hoping for Ravenclaw along with some beautiful ladies. Mac smiled to himself when he heard his friend whisper like the eleven-year-old Harry - _notslytherinnothslytherin_.

"Oh, Boze," Mac openly grinned, keeping his own sadness out of it. "You are a total Gryffindor. All the way. Brave, daring, loyal, valiant, courageous, chivalrous, confident? How is that not you? Be prepared with case studies if you want in to another common room." Mac smiled. Then his phone chimed summoning them to the war room and Mac indicated that they better be going. Bozer held up a hand.

Bozer was almost blushing. "What about Jack?"

Mac nodded. "The same. He's …" Mac had to stop and clear his throat. "He's all those good things, too."

"Well then," Bozer smiled. "You're a Gryffindor, too. We'd all probably share a tower."

Mac gave him a thin smile. "Yeah," he said, his voice entirely too tight.

"You think you're a Slytherin don't you?' Bozer asked, his voice full of accusation.

Mac just shrugged. "I don't think much about where I fit in a fictional world, Boze."

"Bullshit!" Mac turned back toward his friend at the strident tone in his voice. "I played enough D& D with you to know … Besides, I know how much of your allowance you spend on those books and how often Mom and Dad got you Potter stuff for the holiday when you were staying …."

"That was a long time ago, Boze," Mac said more harshly than he'd meant to. "Can we just not ..?"

"You think you're a Slytherin." Bozer gave him a long hard look that Mac's eyes slid away from.

"So what?' he grumped.

"Yeah," Bozer challenged. "So what?

Mac suddenly, for some reason unknown, and frankly unimportant to Bozer, looked close to tears. All Boze cared about was his brother (little brother if anyone wanted to put a fine point on it since he was four months Mac's senior) felt okay about where he was at.

"So nothing if you hadn't decided that Slytherins are bad when you decided you must be one."

Bozer watched Mac swallow hard but was gratified when his friend didn't reply.

"Characteristics of a Slytherin happen to be cunning, determined, ambitious, resourceful, innovative, accomplished. Who'd want to be one of those losers?"

Mac sighed and Bozer put his arm around him the way he saw Jack often do; it was more encouragement than affection and Boze hoped Mac felt it. "I don't know Boze. None of that sounds all that great when I look at it in my own life."

Bozer hugged him harder. "It's only the stuff that keeps the rest of us alive basically all the time. But you know," he teased lightly, "If you want to go switching houses, "I always figured you for a Hufflepuff.

"Because I'm Loyal, hard-working, friendly, patient, and dedicated?" Mac rattled off.

"No," Bozer grinned. "Because you're a total dork with no fashion sense."

Mac actually managed a smile. "Okay. Whether my scarf this Christmas is green and silver or yellow and black I'll just decide to be flattered. But do me a favor, Boze?"

"Yeah?"

"Let me handle Jack and Ri in the meeting. Things aren't great."

"Anything you say, Master Malfoy."

It took every ounce of maturity Mac had ever cultivated not to chuck his socket wrench at his friend then.


	3. Chapter 3

Things were going reasonably well with the briefing. It seemed like everyone but Matty was on the same page, at least at first. Riley going in alone was just not great. She'd never done a solo mission and she was still shaken from the siege at Phoenix. Not to mention that she was extremely defensive about how she froze up over South Korea. Mac and Jack were still trying to cover her ass, but Mac was almost ready to come clean if it would keep Riley out of the line of fire long enough to get her head on straight, when Matty touched a nerve.

Mac remembered all too well what it felt like to 'fall off the horse' so to speak. And when it happened to him, he'd already been a trained soldier, already worked through a lot of baggage with the stuff that went down with the Ghost, and honestly he'd also had about two months to recover because of mandatory medical leave after his first … his brain still slowed a little approaching the memory … kill.

Jack had been adamant about _him_ not going in then, too. But Thornton had made it an order, and Mac had been so keen to prove himself. They'd done it. And Mac had made it out. But with one dead terrorist instead of one they could pump for information, and one fairly serious shoulder injury that amounted to a severe dislocation compounded by a GSW.

But when he'd gone back in, hesitant as he'd been, he remembered the flow coming back, slow but sure, and in a way, that was the thing that put him back together after the mess of a mission that he still had nightmares about sometimes. Getting back out there and doing the work. But when Mac opened his mouth and agreed that Matty had a point, Jack looked totally betrayed. Mac didn't even know what to make of the look, only that it cut him a little.

When Riley stalked out and Bozer followed her, Jack turned toward Mac and said, "You of all people should know she is doesn't belong out there!"

"Jack," Mac began.

Matty interrupted. "She's accepted the mission, Dalton. You, in case you forgot, are not in charge. And you are the only one who doesn't like this."

Mac held up his hands. "I didn't say I liked it, Matty. I just said you had a point."

Both Matty and Jack glared at him now and he just tried to find someplace to look that wasn't at them.

"If anything happens to her," Jack seethed, "I will hold you and Phoenix responsible. He stalked out of the War Room. Mac jogged to keep up.

"Jack, wait," Mac tried to stop him.

Mac shrunk back when Jack gave him another hard look that was nearly another glare. "I expect you to have my back, MacGyver."

"Jack," Mac put a hand on Jack's arm, slowing him down. "I do, okay? I'm worried she's not ready too. But if she doesn't get to find out, it's gonna eat her up. Remember what I was like after that multi-agency op on Canal Street?" he prompted.

Jack did remember. The kid hadn't actually slept decently, even during the couple of days he'd spent doped on in Medical, until he'd gone back out and successfully completed a mission. "Yeah," he rasped, the cleared his throat.

"You always have my back Jack and I always have yours. Ri needs to know we have hers. That she's on the team and she's an equal." Mac looked away. "I … I know what she's going through. Okay?"

Jack's eyes narrowed. "The second it smells even a little off ..?"

"If she thinks it's going bad we'll get her out, and if we get real intel from outside that it's not okay, same. But let her do her job Jack. People like us … We need to do our jobs. It keeps us moving forward."

Jack frowned at him.

Mac looked away for a second calling up something he thought Jack would understand. "You like Shark Week, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Sharks have to swim all the time. They can't stop … Most sharks anyway."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah. It's what keeps oxygen-rich water passing over their gills. Some sharks can take it a little easier, just pass through the water, kind of float and rest on the sea floor for little bits because their pharynx pumps water through their respiratory system. But even those sharks only get a moment's rest."

"So?" Jack said, but he knew the point the kid was trying to make.

"So, we're like that Jack. If we just lay down and let things flow over us for too long … We stop being what we are. We don't want to let that happen to Ri just because we're a little protective of her."

"Okay, so you're tellin' me we gotta _just keep swimming_?"

Mac sighed. "How many times are you gonna watch that movie, Jack?"

"Until my niece gets sick of it."

"Sure." Mac grinned and headed toward the lab to catch up with Bozer and Riley. "Your niece likes it. That's what's up."


	4. Chapter 4

Mac was getting a headache. He didn't want to admit that maybe Jack was right and maybe this mission was pushing it after how she'd frozen on the plane, but the close they got to the meet, the quieter Riley got. She'd been right about not having a comm to go in, Mac was sure, but Jack had gotten stubborn about having two-way in the car and she'd agreed with a sigh.

Then, after a constant stream of encouragement and warnings from Jack, Riley had just gotten frustrated and ditched the car comm. Mac thought she might have even thrown it out the window. He couldn't blame her. Jack was in rare form. Mac tinkered with the transmitter he had set up to patch his improvised necklace bug into Phoenix and did his best to ignore Jack's steady litany of "I don't like this, man."

Mac's leg was starting to bounce with the tapping of his foot, always a dangerous sign of real irritation to anyone who knew him. Part of him, a part he would not readily acknowledge, especially not now with feeling about his father – his childhood family, so stirred up, had a vague, not quite nameable feeling almost like jealousy. Mac knew Jack thought of Riley like a daughter, knew he felt guilty for leaving her as a kid, and knew without a doubt that the way she sometimes treated him hurt his partner. But, that quiet part of Mac that he was doing his best to ignore, also knew that he thought of Mac like his kid, or at the very least his younger brother, and Mac was more than a little used to Jack parenting him in his own strange way that was both infuriating and weirdly loveable.

With another, "Man, I really don't like this," as they turned onto the street they were supposed to park on to back up Riley, the other part of Mac's brain, the part that had always been independent, resourceful, resilient, and reserved, got a little noisier and harder to drown out with his tech tinkering. That was the part that reminded Mac of the times where Jack had overstepped, made him feel like an incompetent kid, despite being a trained soldier and field operative, despite being one of the best in the world at what he did, while still well on the sunny side of thirty. He realized he was grinding his teeth at the memory of Jack being part of Thornton locking him down at Phoenix when Murdoc was gunning for him the first time.

At the next, "I don't like this, man," Mac snapped a little. He unloaded, but just a little. "She's got this," he finished in a clipped tone. When the big guy going over her spun her around roughly, Mac saw her cast a nervous glance back toward their car. He was pretty sure she was more nervous that Jack was going to leap out of the car and blow the op before it got started than she was about the pro-wrestler scanning her for listening devices. Mac didn't want to remind Jack again that before Riley had joined the team, this was just the sort of thing she used to do. And half the time, it had been for fun.

Mac thought Riley was doing a stellar job of selling her part to Bedlam, but Jack was fidgeting in his seat, barely able to keep still. When they heard the distinctive clatter of a gun being sent down hard, even Mac shifted uncomfortably, adjusting what he could on the equipment to try to pick up more with the mic. But when Jack reached out to open the door to go in, Mac nearly lost his temper. He could almost hear Alfred Pena's voice whispering in his ear, "You have feelings about the bomb. The bomb doesn't have feelings about you."

Probably some of the best advice he'd ever gotten about dealing with high stress situations had come from Pena. Deep breath and think first. Nobody cares if after it's all over you want to go throw up, or cry in your bunk, or get wasted. But losing your shit in the moment is probably the thing, more than any gun, or bomb, or bad guy, that could get you killed. And when Jack wasn't in Papa Bear mode, he knew that better than anybody. Mac needed desperately for Jack to remember that right now. Matty's tone was getting downright nasty, and Mac didn't like bringing it up, but he'd been worried about what she might try to do to their team ever since Jack had gotten hurt in that stupid dumpster.

When Jack leapt out of the car in full irrational dad mode, Mac got out just as fast and said the first thing that popped into his head, dumb as it sounded after it got out of his mouth. The fact that Riley hadn't asked for help wasn't exactly going to deter Jack. Riley never asked for help. That's how they'd wound up bailing her out from her trouble with The Collective and, as Jack put it, saving Christmas.

Mac was infamous at Phoenix and in his circle of friends for his unwillingness to admit to needing help. But all too often, Mac saw Jack's protective instincts fool him into making a bad call. And if he was honest, getting back-handedly parented when you were pushing thirty just got damned irritating sometimes. This wasn't a situation that was going to help. Besides, Riley was handling things brilliantly, which Jack would know if he wasn't being a stubborn Jackass and not listening to the intel coming in from the transmitter.

The cold stare Jack gave him along with the words, "Don't make me hurt you right now, Mac," were like a punch in the gut.

Mac saw pain flash in his friend's eyes and he almost relented, almost calmed down enough to think for a second, but then Mac's walls were firmly back in place so quickly, it was like they hadn't come down at all. Jack could tell Mac was about to spout out some other cool rational argument to keep him from pulling Ri out of this mess and he just locked his shoulder and pushed past Mac.

Still sore from being slammed around the inside of that plane and then crash landing, and nearly furious with the risk Jack was taking, not just with blowing Riley's cover and screwing up the mission, but risking their team by ignoring Matty, Mac had the urge to just lay Jack out. He had hit him before. Back in Afghanistan. It had been over something stupid. No, now that he thought about it, it had been over something remarkably similar to this. The next couple of minutes felt like hours and Mac could see the logical conclusion barreling down at their team like a train with no bakes.

"You're emotionally compromised, Jack!" Matty snapped and Mac got that feeling in his gut like being on an elevator when it drops too fast. "And you're coming home! That's an order."

Mac winced. Yeah, that's what he'd been afraid of. He knew Jack well enough not to say anything, or at least not to be the first to say anything.

When they got a safe distance from the building, Jack spun around and half shoved Mac's shoulder again. "What the hell, Mac? I always have your back. You're supposed to have mine, too. And back at HQ you swore you did," he hissed in the loudest whisper Mac thought he'd ever heard.

Instead of shoving back, which he really sort of wanted to do, he just shook his head, almost sadly. "I was trying to."

Jack just frowned and stomped away a few steps. "That don't even make any sense, Mac. All you've been doing since this started is argue with me about this mission."

Mac licked his lips. "It's about more than just this mission, Jack. The team …"

"Could wind up with one less member! If anything happens to her, Mac, I swear …"

Mac wasn't meeting his eye anymore. He didn't trust his voice or expression enough for that. He just said with all the cool professionalism he could muster, "I'm not going to let anything happen to her, Jack. I already told you, you're not the only one who cares about her."

"Whatever," Jack grumbled. "I'll be back. I'm gonna go have a little chat with our fearless leader who is clearly off her damned rocker."

"Jack, I don't think …" He trailed off. "Do what you've gotta do, Jack. I've got Riley."

He glanced at Jack's face then and saw the realization that his own rash behavior was pulling him away from protecting Riley. And now he was leaving her and Mac both on their own, unarmed.

Jack's jaw took on a firm stubborn set. "I said I'll be back."

Mac nodded like he believed him, and headed back to the car without another word, mentally testing scenarios for how to go in and bail Riley out without armed back-up if it came to that.

Jack stalked off into the poorly lit city streets, to the location Matty had just texted him for pick up. He could hardly wait to instruct the director in the error of her ways. _Emotionally compromised, my ass_ , he grumbled to himself as he climbed into the car that was waiting for him on the corner.

"Home?" the agent driving asked, looking almost afraid to speak.

"Headquarters," Jack snapped, and then got out his phone and started texting.


	5. Chapter 5

When Cage slid into the car in the red sequined evening dress, Mac was more than a little surprised that she took his head off about her orders. He felt his jaw tighten and he licked his lips almost nervously. What he wanted was his partner at his side, even if his partner was being a pain in the ass.

What he got was Matty pulling Cage from an assignment she'd asked for, and Cage snapping at him like he was responsible. She also didn't exactly look ready to back him up. She looked ready to go out to a show, maybe the opera.

He just deflected by reminding her that it wasn't his fault that she was with him, it was Matty's; and that the person she was replacing – that word did not feel comfortable at all when it passed through his mind – wasn't any happier about it than she was, in fact, he was pretty much blindingly furious. What Mac didn't add was that he wasn't very happy either.

He'd had Jack well on his way to cooled off, and while Mac thought the solo mission might actually be what Ri needed to get her shit together after choking, he also thought seeing it through after his initial kneejerk reaction would have been good for Jack. But when it came to Jack, Matty seemed to have kneejerk reactions, too. Sometimes it was exhausting to navigate that. He felt like he spent a fair amount of time running interference between Jack and their boss and even with that, the relationship wasn't great.

When Cage asked him to help her with the zipper he was surprised. Even as he put on an agreeable face and turned to do it, he had an overwhelming and irrational urge to get out of the car and run around the block two or three times.

Nikki had done almost exactly the same thing on one of the first missions they'd been in the field together for, before they'd … been a … thing. He hated how his brain even thought about their relationship these days.

What he hated even more was how much he still missed her and how he would immediately grab his phone and check when the song that had been her ringtone came on the radio, like he was programmed to do it. But Nikki had dropped off the grid again after taking down Thornton and left him feeling once again betrayed, and no small amount of taken advantage of. Not that he'd necessarily minded at the time.

When Cage just started wriggling out of her dress, Mac made a very focused and determined effort to keep his eyes on what was going on across the street. He knew he shifted a little uncomfortably in his seat, knew he was sitting almost overly still, but he hoped she would just assume it was long surveillance hours-related discomfort.

Since Penny Parker had been one of his best friends for a long time, and her being bitten by the acting bug had happened at the ripe old age of about seven, it's not like Cage was the first woman Mac wasn't romantically involved with to decide that his car was a changing room.

But Penny had always taken pains to … well, to not … be so obvious. Mac wasn't sure how to interpret how casual Cage was being, but he supposed maybe it was just a result of having served, having lived in barracks. For a lot of people that just sanded off whatever modesty they might have had. That hadn't happened for him, but it was pretty common, he reasoned.

However, he didn't think that was it. Something just bothered him. He felt almost like she was playing him for reactions. Almost like a reflex. She'd commented that the rest of the team was easy to read, but not him. Maybe that bothered her. That couldn't be his problem though. He was glad when she finally got her more 'back-up' ready clothes on and he could stop staring at the total lack of action across the street like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

Then he got Jack's 'Protect Riley or somebody's getting a beat down and I'm still pissed at you' text. He and Riley had joked about disabling the emojis on Jack's phone more than once, and lately they were more than half serious about it, but they both supposed it was better than dealing with Jack invented abbreviations and his interpretation of text speak.

"Your girlfriend?" Cage asked, with open curiosity.

Another play for personal information. That he didn't think she'd been around long enough to be entitled to, damn it. Instead of answering the implied relationship status question, Mac just answered honestly about the text. "Jack."

When Cage launched into her analysis of Jack and Riley's relationship, Mac felt the poker face he'd been trying hard to keep with her slip. His annoyance and suspicion were plainly stamped across his features.

And her immediate excuse of being a trained interrogator reeked of bullshit. Jack was a trained interrogator, too. He just preferred different methods. Somebody was feeding her information, or she was really good at digging for it. The question was why?

He was distracted from his stirring mistrust by feeling the need to defend Jack, and having the simultaneous guilty thought that maybe he should have kept his mouth shut at the outset and figured out another way to build Riley's confidence back up, because then, Jack wouldn't be pulled from whatever mission they were on and he wouldn't be here explaining Jack to Cage.

Then things went from bad to worse when Matty called. She and Jack were still bickering like kids in the War Room, and Mac had the fleeting thought that, while Bozer might be technically correct in what he was saying, the one he was using with Jack was going to bite him in the ass at some point. There was a lot of waffle making in Bozer's future, if his friends' past spats were any indication.

Then, when Matty ordered both of them off backing up Riley, Mac nearly joined Jack in his protests. You didn't just leave your field agent hanging. There were other people who could be deployed to warn the SecDef. Then Matty and Jack's arguing escalated and Mac just swallowed hard and headed out as fast as he could, hoping to warn the Secretary and get back as quickly as possible.

Matty was pushing them around like pieces on a chessboard, not following the protocols that had always been in place to keep agents as safe as possible in an already wildly unsafe job, and sticking another player onto their team without discussing with them first, when there were other ops teams that were actually lacking her skill set. Mac didn't know what was going on, but he did know he wasn't going to give her another reason to break up their team.

Unfortunately, Jack was giving her plenty all on his own.


	6. Chapter 6

Back at Phoenix, Jack was impressed, in spite of himself at how Riley was handling herself as he watched through the bank's surveillance cameras. There was a brief moment where she looked directly into one and it was like the shock of real eye contact. There was worry there, nervousness, and the expectation that her team was looking out for her. Jack felt a cold solid weight settle into the pit of his stomach, like he'd swallowed a huge block of slowly melting ice. Her team should be there looking out for her. _He_ should be there.

It cooled some of his remaining anger at Matty. It also made him start to go over the things he'd said to Mac. Had he actually threatened his partner, his best friend, over just trying to get him to take minute to think instead of barging in like a bull in a china shop? Yeah, he had. He'd done it once before, too. In Helmond Province. They hadn't even known each other that long. And they'd been apart for a while. Jack had been back in the states working something for CIA and he bulled back in to Afghanistan, snapped Mac back up for his Delta team, and promptly went and nearly gotten them killed. He'd tried to go back out in the field to go after a captured teammate, with a fairly severe concussion and a bullet lodged just above his elbow.

Mac had gotten in his way then, too. Jack had tried to push past him, just pull rank and frankly bully the younger, smaller, more intellectual man into compliance and when that didn't work he'd taken a swing at the young, furious blond. And he'd connected, he'd seen the pain register in Mac's eyes, not unlike the pain just suggesting it had caused today. Jack swallowed.

Back then though, Mac was just young enough, just immature enough, and just reckless enough to swing back. And he'd knocked the boss right on his ass. Their medic had taken it from there and Mac had gone out with the rest of the team and pulled off the rescue mission that Jack probably would have died attempting at less than full capacity. He'd managed to apologize then, after he'd scared the hell out of the kid by threatening to bring him up on charges, and Mac had been more than forgiving.

He'd have to find some way to make this up to him too. Jesus. Riley was his kid, yeah. She'd nearly been his step kid officially if he hadn't chickened out. But Mac was that, too, and more. He was a brother, in the way that only war makes them. And he was his friend it that same singular way. Also in that funny odd couple, they made each other better people way, too.

But in similar, equally important ways Mac was the son Jack never managed to get around to having, and when they'd met Jack had the immediate thought that if anyone ever needed taking under a wing it was MacGyver, known around base as Hollywood, né Angus Henry, poor bastard. Mac had bristled at first at the idea of getting close to anyone in the squad, say nothing of its leader with his overtly paternal tendencies who got teased by the rest of the team by being called Dad and Pops every time he got on a tear about something.

But, after a while, the kid hadn't come to just tolerate that relationship, he'd come to depend on it. Jack swallowed hard thinking that he'd broken trust with the two most important people in his life today and if either of them got hurt he had no one to blame but the guy who was supposed to look out for them. Looking that bastard in the mirror was going to make shaving a bitch for a little while, probably.

Jack had to think of something. Hell, it didn't matter which one of them he was bragging on, those kids both always thought of something. He couldn't let them down by not doing the same.

0-0-0

Across town, Mac was missing Jack's particular brand of calling him kid. When Jack did it, it was said with affection and never meant to imply that it made him less than an equal. The SecDef would, as Jack might put it, significantly benefit from an elbow smash right to the hinge of the jaw. What a condescending bastard.

Cage looked so desperate to get the job done, to prove herself out here, and here Mac was, just trying not to roll his eyes. He wished Jack was here to just say something totally inappropriate that would piss this career politician off and maybe get the guy off his high horse long enough to actually assess the threat.

But Jack wasn't here. And nothing he or Cage said was going to get through to this officious, self-important prick. Mac's first impulse wasn't usually violence, but damned if this guy didn't have a serious case of what Jack would call 'punchface'.

When the man's security guard put a hand on Mac and gave a shove, he just braced and glared at the guy, who he was pleased to see was taken aback by his inability to move him even an inch. Then Mac and Cage shared a look. They were going to have to follow this idiot, or his stubbornness was going to get him killed, and maybe others along with him. They couldn't allow that.

0-0-0

When it became clear that the team was caught up in, not just the planning stages of an assassination, but the action, things started happening fast. Jack knew it had gone bad before the events even started to play out on screen. He snapped at Matty, "You happy?" but his voice and his eyes were full of self-recrimination. No longer waiting for orders, not waiting to see what else would happen, Jack took off to fix what he'd broken.

Riley, realizing she was completely on her own, had a moment of complete blinding panic where she felt too weak at the knees to even fight back. Once she was closed in the trunk, however, without the creepy killer eyeballs of the black hats slithering over her, she made herself take a deep breath and think. Mac was always saying that. "Just breath, Ri. One problem at a time." She looked around. Okay. The breath helped. She was not without resources. She went to work trying to MacGyver her way out of the situation almost immediately, hoping that flying by the seat of her pants works as well for her as it did for Mac.

0-0-0

Mac hesitated for just a second before he pulled down the sleeve of his coat and smashed out the window of the custom paint job thing of beauty he was about to steal. Oh, man. He hoped he wouldn't have to tell Jack. He was pretty sure the man would cry about him violating a classic muscle car this fine. But, it wasn't digitized. And that's what he needed. So, necessity being the mother of invention and all, he went with it. To his pleased surprise, Cage just grinned and went with the flow, too.

She did start prodding him about whether or not he had an actual plan almost immediately. Mac smirked and pretended like he had it all under control. He had a plan. Well, he sort of had a plan. Okay, he knew they needed to catch up with the SecDef and he'd figure out the rest when they did. Jeez. This wasn't complicated. Plan. Jack had better four letter words on missions. He half smiled to himself.

Cage was pretty helpful setting up his kinda-sorta plan. "You sure this is gonna work?"

"I'm never _that_ sure," he shrugged. Better to be honest. Getting used to certainties around this ops team was just stupidly optimistic. But it did work. And less than two minutes later they had managed to assault and kidnap the Secretary of Defense.

0-0-0

Jack had a few moments he could think of when he was as relieved as he was when Riley's was the voice that poured out of his cell phone speakers. But they were few and far between. And most of them involved her or a certain blue-eyed genius he was still figuring out how to say sorry to. Then Riley started rambling about what she wanted him to do if she died and he … well, he just could stand that.

And it wasn't just that he couldn't stand the idea of something happening to her. He couldn't stand the idea of her giving up and just letting something happen. He had to admit, much as it pained him, that maybe some of his reaction before had been that she was, for all intents and purposes, his little girl. And he'd been raised to think about that a particular way. That was probably why he'd responded to Mac the way he had. He thought any self-respecting big brother should have been immediately on Team Dad.

But … and that was a big one, capital B and all … this wasn't the 80's, and Ri was … well, Ri was her own person. Frankly, nothing Jack had learned about women growing up, or raising kids of either gender seemed to much apply anymore, but most especially about girls. Riley could take care of herself, just like Mac, and both expected to be afforded the respect to be allowed to do so. Most of the time.

Getting vulnerable and wanting to be taken care of when one of them was hurt or sick and lumped up at home, or just upset over something at work, or a random date gone bad, that was one thing. Giving up and being less than their fully realized selves when they were out in the world, that wasn't what Jack wanted for either of them, not at all. Not even in his most ridiculous overprotective moment.

"You can do this," Jack said with the total confidence of real faith the hadn't even known he had before tonight.

When Ri said, "I gotta go; I've got an idea," there were shades of Mac in her voice. If he hadn't been so damned worried he might have laughed.

And it seemed Riley's revelation set in motion the rest of the mission's conclusion. Matty called him with Riley's exact location almost immediately after she hung up. The terrorists were immobilized by Ri's genius, and Mac and Cage had gotten the SecDef off to what felt like a safe distance.

Unfortunately, the SecDef was threatening them with treason charges and Mac getting legalistic did not seem to be helping their case. Mac had been wishing he could shut the man up for a while now, but when he realized Bedlam had sent him into cardiac arrest, he felt immediately guilty as his prisoner of circumstance turned patient of same went quiet and slumped in his seat.


	7. Chapter 7

When Jack opened the trunk and Riley was lying there motionless, was convinced for a second that he was being paid back for taking his kids for granted, convinced she was dead. Training, habit, and stubborn optimism kept him saying her name. When she rolled toward him and opened her eyes, it was an iron will that kept him from sinking onto the ground and sobbing with relief.

Seeing Riley break down the minute she realized it was him and that she was safe, started the tears flowing, but also got his innate dad dialogue back up and running and he bent to pull her into his arms and start mumbling hushed reassurances. She was crying, he was crying, and they were both hugging each other just a little too hard, but they also both felt like they were going to be okay … not just this situation, but them.

Then she pulled away a little bit and she almost laughed at him despite her sore everything. She knew she'd been roughed up and kidnapped and thrown into the back of a car that crashed while she was in the trunk. But Jack that had that 'drag a buddy to Medical' look and instead of Mac it was being directed at her. Good grief, how did Mac stand the constant parenting he got from Jack? She only got it when he thought her life was going sideways or he knew she hadn't been in touch with her mom for a while. She was surprised Mac didn't just tell him off more often, and after the way Jack had tried to undermine her at the start of the mission she was sorely tempted.

But this was a 'don't even dare argue with me' look. And she wasn't really interested in arguing with him (she was pretty sure she had a concussion and she did feel like hammered crap), but, as she started extracting herself from the trunk, now refusing his help to show him she was fine, she reminded him, "The mission's not over, Old Man."

He nodded reluctantly. "Matty? Mac? Who's got me on comms?" and he started fishing around in his pocket for a spare earpiece for Riley and went to retrieve her rig from the unconscious hackers in the front of the car. Once she had it, he started applying cuffs in anticipation of the tac team's arrival.

He didn't get very far when Riley just needed him to hold her again. She kept getting to the point of almost fine and then her breath would catch and she'd start almost panicking again. Jack made sure the prisoners were secure and then he just sat with her, waiting for word from Phoenix of for their promised support to get to them and get Riley checked over to be sure she wasn't more hurt than she thought. And as soon as she was under the care of one of their doctors, he could breathe long enough figure out what to do about the rest of this mess.

Then the phone rang, and Mac needed their help, and Jack was once again impressed with how easily Riley got back into something like game face mode. He also wanted to remember to mention to Mac that he couldn't remember the last time he'd just called for help without being nearly bullied into doing it; and the fact that he'd done so in front of Cage who was still very much an unknown quantity, was doubly impressive.

Jack enjoyed watching the strange problem solving, compromise loaded, shorthand, backassward almost military speak that Mac and Ri had developed with each other in the last year. And damned if it didn't make him proud watching them work. He didn't even mind when Cage said he was lying about med school. Because, first of all, screw her, and second of all, Riley believed him when he told her he didn't actually go but he'd really thought about it. Which was true. So, it wasn't lying at all, it was hyperbole in a highly hyperbolic situation.

Mac was almost annoyed with Cage for bothering to say Jack was lying about med school. As far as Mac was concerned it was a little idiomatic expression, meant to reduce tension. Who would take the time in this sort of situation to question the veracity of a statement that was most likely just meant to be funny? Fortunately, he was too busy trying to save the SecDef to bother.

When it worked, Mac felt almost weak with relief. They didn't need another gun on this team in Cage, they needed a goddamned medic. Mac was okay with being the smart guy (and he had been trying to get Riley to acknowledge that she was probably his equal in that department for a while with no success) but out here smart meant you had to play freaking doctor an awful lot.

He didn't know how many times he could explain he had barely gotten out of Bio with his Track eligibility intact but it didn't seem all that effective and getting them to stop expecting him to be the on-the-spot medic. Did how often he slipped out of Medical untreated and unnoticed until he was home, in bed, and ignoring texts, not penetrate anybody's heads?

On second thought, he'd deal with doing the lifesaving garbage. Being saddled with a medic (which some teams already were) would make the general avoidance of dealing with low level stuff way harder to pull off. Besides, Cage seemed finally convinced that his lack of planning might not be an actionable offence and the SecDef would live.

Not a bad night after all. If Jack was speaking to him, that was, Mac thought. Cage had held up her side, but it was lonely out here without his real team, without Jack.

Not very far away, Jack was sharing a moment he was used to sharing with a currently worried blond, with a young woman who had at one point in her life slipped frequently and called him Dad. The shared a glance and started laughing. Jack had started fixing things with one of his kids. What to do about the other though, Jack wondered.

0-0-0

When the debrief concluded, everyone had quietly gone their separate ways. Although, Matty had insisted on someone driving Riley home due to, what Jack seemed almost smug to learn, was a mild concussion. The Bozer said her discharge instructions from Medical said she shouldn't be alone and should be, if not woken up, at least checked on every few hours. He volunteered to sleep on her couch and take care of that. She'd smiled and shaken her head. "The couch, Boze. We're clear on that." But she'd let him be the one to take her home.

Jack had asked Mac if he wanted to go grab a beer, but Mac shook his head. "I'm beat, Jack. I just want to go home and crash. Besides, a night without Boze playing X-box way too loud while I'm trying to rack out or waking me up way to early with food and pop music, sounds like heaven."

Jack didn't think Mac was still upset with him, but there was a reserve there that made him uneasy. He was determined to get everyone together for lunch the next day to maybe get the team back on the same page and start making amends for how he'd acted. He was even going to ask Matty since she'd been very nice about not writing him up for being an insubordinate jerk.

Jack hoped the team would see inviting them all to the pizza place that had previously been just his and Riley's for what it was: a small act of contrition. Riley certainly seemed to see what he was trying to do.

The swelling sense of pride he got when he was able to tell her he had been wrong, and she was just fine without him, made him nearly cry again like he had sitting on the edge of that car trunk, but damn it felt good to acknowledge who she had become. And when she started repeating his lessons back to him, as things she'd just gleaned from experience, his watery smile said everything he needed to.

When the two of them got back to the table, Jack was both a little surprised and totally pleased to see that while everyone else was ignoring the pizza on the table in front of them, Mac was clearly into his second slice and not slowing down. Sometimes after a mission, and definitely after any conflict that felt remotely personal, Mac got what Jack's Nana called peckish. But not this time. Good. It looked like maybe their fight hadn't gotten into the kid's head. That didn't mean Jack was off the hook, but, it did mean Mac hadn't taken any of the hurt truly to heart.

Torn between waiting until they were alone to say something, and needing to acknowledge in front of everyone how wrong he'd been, Jack tried to apologize to Mac. In typical Mac fashion, it was brushed off and the credit for a successful mission was directed at the new team member who Mac knew, no matter what he said out loud, Jack didn't care for.

Mac was clearly surprised when Cage joined them, on Jack's personal invitation. Jack couldn't tell if Mac was pleased or not. There was a reserve there that wasn't usually. And he started goofing off with Bozer in a way that was usually reserved for home and maybe a couple of beers in. It made it very easy for Jack to picture them at twelve or thirteen.

He wondered what the Riley he knew back then would have made of them. Probably cocked an annoyed eyebrow at them and ignored them for something on her computer. Cage was taking in their shenanigans with a practiced eye, one that spent most of its time trained on Mac.

Uncomfortable with the scrutiny being given his partner, who was, for a change, just actively decompressing and relaxing like a regular person after a mission, Jack suggested skeeball. Since Mac considered himself the master of all skill games to which one could apply a mathematical formula, he was the first to accept. That lightened things up for the whole team.

As afternoon gave way to evening, and everyone had eaten way too much pizza, they started to think about wrapping up their day out. Mac had picked up Riley and Bozer at her place and had been planning on dropping them off. On their way to the parking lot, Riley stumbled, and Mac practically had to carry her to the nearest bench. "Hey, you okay, Ri?" he asked with concern, but was almost immediately drowned out by Jack and Bozer's concern.

Riley tried insisting she was okay and they could just take her home, but Bozer had other ideas. "Mac, why don't you just let me borrow your jeep? I'll take Ri home and crash on the couch again. Just to make sure she's okay, and I'll pick you up on the way in to Phoenix in the morning."

"I can just give you guys a ride," Mac said frowning. "I'll stop by and pick you up in the morning. I can come by a little early. We'll go out for breakfast."

"C'mon, Mac, just let me borrow your baby. What if she gets worse concussion symptoms? Dr. P said to bring her back in if gets too dizzy or sick or anything."

"I'm okay now, Boze," Riley interjected, but he just gave her the same look he always shot Mac when he tried the same thing. Riley almost cracked up. So that's what it felt like to be on the receiving end of the Mama Bozer stare. "Fine! Whatever. Get a backache on my couch. I don't care." She'd meant it to sound dismissive, but it mostly wound up sounding fond.

"I don't mind running you home, Mac," Jack offered carefully, sensing that Mac was looking for some space, but not wanting Ri going home on her own either. And if anyone would obsessively make sure she was okay it would be Boze. Even Jack couldn't promise himself he'd wake up to check on her as often as would probably be warranted. Ten years ago, sure, but not now.

Mac shrugged, with a slight smile. "Sure," and he handed Bozer his keys. "Thanks, Jack."


	8. Chapter 8

They all parted ways after everyone was positive Riley didn't need to see the on-call night doc at Phoenix, and traffic had thinned a little. Well, thinned for LA. The commute took longer than anyone with any sense would care for, but Mac and Jack were pretty quiet, for them. Mac turned up Jack's Johnny Cash CD, saying he'd never heard this particular album and inviting Jack to tell the story of the _American Man_ collection. Mac smiled occasionally as his partner rambled. Sometimes he thought Jack should have been a writer or a teacher. He told great stories, even when they mostly sounded like bullshit. Then he casually asked, "Did you really flunk out of med school?"

Jack shook his head. "You musta heard me tell Ri." Mac just shook his head; he'd only hald heard everything being said over comms at the time. "I didn't go, but I thought about it."

"Really? You hate medical stuff."

"When I'm subjected to it, sure," Jack grinned sheepishly. "Otherwise, you may have noticed I'm generally a fan. Like when it keeps my friends from dyin' and whatnot."

Mac snickered. "So why didn't you go?"

Jack shrugged, turning onto Mac's street. "Got my Bachelors in the Army; a course here, a course there. I poked away at my Master's my first run at the CIA. I really thought about it, kid. I wondered if I wouldn't make a good psychiatrist, ya know?"

Mac smiled and shook his head. He could actually picture it. Jack probably would have been a great shrink. Of course, Mac thought, he could also picture him being good in medicine in general. The doc little kids weren't afraid of, the one old people wanted at their bed side. His loss of temper yesterday notwithstanding, even when he was being a nut, there was something inherently comforting about Jack. "I bet you would have, Jack."

"Thanks, kid." Jack shrugged again.

"What stopped you though? Seriously." Mac prodded as they pulled in to his parking area.

Jack paused like he didn't want to answer. Then he sighed. "I went back active with the Army. Stayed in until we met. With the occasional CIA vacation." He shrugged. He did not say out loud that something told him he was better at taking life than he ever would have been at saving it. Because he knew what Mac would say, and he didn't think he could handle it, feeling as guilty as he did for how he'd treated Mac last night.

Jack threw the car into park. "You want me to pick you up in the morning? Save Boze the cross-town commute with Ri if she's still not feelin' her best?"

Mac nodded. "Sure. That'd be great. I'll text them."

Mac paused with his hand on the door handle. Things still felt … off between them. Mac wanted Jack to know there were no hard feelings over him getting hotheaded in the field. Riley was okay, the mission was accomplished, and Matty seemed happy and not inclined to bringing up problems with the team. They could just pretend last night never happened and move on. Mac was good at that. He wished Jack was better at it. He'd hoped their little bit of talking in the car would get them there. It hadn't. Maybe one of their fireside chats would help, Mac thought.

"Hey, you wanna come in and have a beer?"

"Yeah ... Yeah sure." Jack knew he sounded a little over eager, but he couldn't help it. The public apology had been a mistake.

It took a few minutes to get settled and a few more to get the fire started out on the deck. Mac grumbled that it had been unusually humid for LA and fires were harder to start. He needed to figure something out. Jack said he had no doubt Mac would build the bigger better fire in no time flat. Mac just threw him a little grin and ordered him inside to get them some beers.

They sunk into their respective deck chairs with cold beer not too long after that. They sipped their beverages quietly for a little while. Finally, Jack broke the silence. "So, Cage did pretty good this time out, huh?"

Mac took a long slow drink. "Yeah. Better than I hoped based on the ass chewing she gave me when she first showed up. You'da thought _I_ called her off her weird 'let's go interrogate the ambassador in a Jessica Rabbit costume' thing.

Jack chuckled. "Jessica Rabbit? How do you even know about that movie? That came out before you were born!"

"So did _Star Wars_ ," Mac shrugged. "Halloween party thing … Nikki … She looked … You know what, shut up," he laughed a little. Then his face creased back into a frown. "Anyway, she sure as hell wasn't thrilled to be called in to babysit me and Ri."

"No one babysits you guys," Jack said, maybe a little too quickly. Mac just stayed silent. "I'm sorry I treated you like you were babysitting her and doing a bad job though, kid. I really am." Jack's voice tightened.

"Don't worry about it, buddy; I told you I get it. And I do. She's … You're … It's … We're good."

Jack put down his beer. And he spun in his chair, so he was facing Mac and his feet were on the floor, clasping his hands seriously. "No. We're not, bud. I'm really sorry."

"Jack," Mac wasn't really looking at him, but his voice sounded perfectly normal.

"No, I acted like Ri was more important than you and I didn't realize that's what I was doing until after, but I did."

"Jack, she's just about your ..." Mac tried, thinking Riley had almost legally been Jack's daughter.

"Hush a minute." Jack's tone didn't offer an opportunity to argue.

Mac's eyes widened, but his mouth snapped shut. Jack took a deep breath. Yep. Nope. Didn't matter. He was probably gonna get weepy and that was gonna make Mac defensive and uncomfortable. Mac didn't like to cry. He hated that worse than throwing up. Or maybe bleeding. Actually, he definitely hated it worse than bleeding.

"I …" Jack started, the he paused and took a swig of beer to cover just how hard he had to swallow. He began again. "I care about both of you. I … You must know that."

Mac nodded, "Of course. You don't need to do this." Mac shifted in his seat. He hadn't wanted this. A beer, maybe talk football for a few, give each other a little shit about the mission – the usual. He hadn't wanted or expected Jack to go full dad tonight. He wasn't sure he could handle it.

"I do though. And I'm still working on apologizing to Riley for this mission, too." Mac's eyebrows raised a little. "My dad always treated my sisters like they were a little more breakable than me and my brother, you know? And he had very particular ideas about how a man treated ladies, in general, and especially as it applied to his kids."

"Don't call Ri a lady. She will give you a lecture on female oppression and the insidiousness of patriarchal language. And she'll be right. And it will just piss you both off."

Jack managed a chuckle. "I've already had that lecture, thank you very much. Old habits die hard I guess. Just like my gut response to her going out on this mission."

Mac nodded. "But it's not just your little … I'm going to say old fashioned streak … I've seen you get like that before. Remember?" This time Mac was wearing a slight smirk that made Jack feel a little better.

"I do seem to recall a mission where a certain dumb genius gave me my first serious crop of grey hair going back out after … Well, you know."

"After I had to kill a guy on a mission. Jack, I've been doing this job for years now. You don't have to dance around it." Mac's eyes were hard. He started absently massaging the back of his neck, as if to stave off an inevitable headache. "I thought you were gonna kneecap Thornton over it."

"I sure as hell thought about it. You were hurt. Not fully recovered. That was her MO with you though and ..."

Mac interrupted. "You're a protective guy." He grinned. "Eventually we all learn to live with it," Mac said in a teasing tone that was pretty close to normal.

Jack was almost starting at Mac's face, his own expression very serious and his eyes too shiny. Mac was doing a fair job of looking at him and keeping his own expression sympathetic, but Jack could tell his mind was somewhere else. And the kid looked about done in. "I threatened you though and …"

"And you'd done it before when you were off your ass irrational. And I knocked you back onto it. I would have out there last night, too."

"You forget the last time you managed it, I was more than a little dinged up," Jack said indignantly.

"Well, now you're more than a little old. I could take you." Mac's tone was light, clearly indicating it was not a challenge. He'd stopped rubbing his neck and started playing absently with his watch.

Jack pressed his lips together hard for a second. "That's not the kind of relationship I want to have with you, kid. And you don't deserve to be treated like that."

Mac stopped and picked his beer back up, drinking half of what was left. "Like I told you yesterday Jack, we're good. Enough with the apologies and enough rehashing old shit. Mission's over, everyone's fine. Let's just … not. Okay?" He drank the rest to avoid looking at Jack for a minute.

"Okay, kid. I get it. You've had enough with the bad dad apology."

"I haven't had parents since I was a little kid, Jack," Mac snapped. Then he sighed. "I'm sorry."

Jack started to tell him that it was okay, that he'd pushed too far, that he knew Mac wasn't really one for the big deep heart to hearts. Mac stopped him, getting to his feet. "Look, I think we're both just tired. It was a stressful mission. I'm gonna go crash before I say anything else I don't mean or that's just shitty because I'm beat."

Jack got up, too. "Alright, kid. You're the smart one on the team; I'll defer to your wisdom on all things somnambulistic."

"That means sleep walking, Jack," Mac said with a little grin and a head shake.

Jack shrugged. "Whatever. All things sleepy then."

"Better choice." Mac turned to head inside, confident that Jack would let himself out. "G'night." Instead of just letting him walk away though, Jack grabbed him by the elbow and pulled him into a brief hug. He stiffened for a second and then, knowing his partner really needed them to be okay if he was going to go home and go to bed, Mac hugged him back. "We're really alright, Big Guy. I promise."

Jack released him. "Okay. Good night, kid."

Mac headed into his room unimpeded this time. Jack put out the fire and took their two beer bottles to the recycling. He saw Mac's light go off under his door. Kid must really be tired, he thought as he headed toward the exit. Then the blue light from Mac's computer flicked on.

What the hell was he up to? Jack supposed it was none of his business and he'd already pushed enough boundaries and done enough things to hurt Mac's feelings and push him away. Snooping would not help. Jack opened the door to leave, but waited just a beat. He heard Mac's voice very clearly through the door. "Nothing? At all?" and then he heard another voice answer, obviously on the computer speakers, but couldn't make out what it said.

Jack shook his head and finished letting himself out, arming the security system as he went. The kid was losing sleep looking for his father. And no matter how much Mac might try to convince himself and Jack that everything was okay, Jack was pretty sure that nothing was.

No parents since he was a little kid. The thought echoed around Jack's mind as he drove home. As he crawled into his bed he thought, "Well, by God, whether he wants one or not, Mac has a parent now. Or brother. Or best friend. Or whatever he needs."

But Mac had spent going on twenty years convincing himself that he didn't really need anybody, and that even if he did, they were going to let him down. Jack squeezed burning eyes shut at the thought that how he had behaved on this mission had probably confirmed that incorrect bias at least a little.

Jack had to fix this between them. Really fix it.

But he had his work cut out for him.


End file.
